Three cheers for Elon Musk for standing up to the European Commission and calling for the end of the EU. In Musk’s own words, “the EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.” He was echoing the sentiments of Donald Trump who has harshly criticized the EU, calling it a threat to the United States and antithetical to the interests of the American people. In an interview this week, the president lamented that much of Europe is “decaying,” cursed by its “weak” and “politically correct” leaders.

Musk’s remarks were in response to the EU fining his social media company X a staggering €120m (£105m) for “non-compliance with transparency obligations under the DSA [Digital Services Act],” citing the supposedly “deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark,’ lack of transparency of its advertising repository” and “failure to provide access to public data for researchers.” This has widely been seen as a highly political move against one of America’s largest corporations, with a vast online following in Europe.

The real reason many suspect the European Commission is fining X is not because of its transparency or data practices, but because it has become a thorn in the side of those who hate and fear free speech. In other words, this is not about “checkmarks” or data. It’s about power and control by the Brussels machine, which sees Musk as a threat that must be muzzled.

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Increasingly, the EU stands for despotism, socialism, mass migration, the suppression of free speech and the destruction of national sovereignty. Many senior U.S. officials and Members of Congress rightly view the European Union as fundamentally undemocratic, run by power-hungry unelected bureaucrats with practically zero accountability.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has given his full support to Musk, warning the EU that the actions of the European Commission are an “attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”

Now a U.S. ban on the European Commission officials responsible for this sinister attack on Musk and freedom of speech is in order. They should be sanctioned and barred from entering the United States and attending the World Cup next summer. This would send a clear message that Washington will not tolerate the targeting of American citizens and their businesses in Europe.

The EU is a real problem for the United States and for the transatlantic alliance. It is dominated by big government, Left-wing ideology, and is sinking under the weight of decades of open-borders policies, threatening the very future of Western civilization. As Trump and his vice-president JD Vance have made clear, Europe faces an existential crisis of its own making, while adversaries such as China and Russia are seeking to exploit Europe’s weakness.

It is in America’s national interest to work with sovereign nation states that share its values, and are based on democratic accountability. As Musk has declared, “The European Union is not democracy—rule of the people—but rather bureaucracy—rule of the unelected bureaucrat.”

Obviously, the United States cannot unilaterally abolish the EU, which was originally established as the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 with American support. But it can actively back the cause of national sovereignty and self-determination across Europe, challenging the power of Brussels, and stand with European movements that seek to throw off the shackles of the EU machine.

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To his great credit, Trump has been a huge supporter of Brexit, and his administration recognizes that Britain’s exit from the EU was a game changer for the future of Europe. The White House should go further and call for Brexit-style referendums across the European Union, to allow the people of European countries a vote on their own destinies.

And just as the United States stood with the brave and fearless dissidents of the Soviet Union who fought against the tyranny of Moscow, the world’s superpower should back those in Europe who wish to see democracy and sovereignty restored across the continent and power taken away from Brussels. The EU, of course, is not the same as Communist Russia and poses no military threat to the U.S. But it is increasingly dictatorial in its approach, stunningly dismissive of dissent, contemptuous of democracy, and dangerously willing to suppress freedom of speech.

Musk should be applauded for his powerful defense of free speech in Europe, and for his refusal to give in to censorship and intimidation. His fight against the EU is just and courageous, and is part of a growing revolution in America’s approach towards Europe. The days of the U.S. supporting the European Project are over, and the transatlantic alliance will be far better off when the EU is consigned to the dustbin of history.